National Veterans Creative Arts Festival

Are you an artist or enjoy dabbling? Join your Montana VA healthcare team for the 2023 Montana VA Health Care System Creative Arts Festival! The festival is open to all enrolled Veterans within the Montana VA Health Care System. Veterans can participate in-person or by emailing a digital submission. Submit your application today!

Across the country each year, Veterans enrolled at VA health care facilities compete in a local creative arts competition. The competition includes categories in the visual arts division that range from oil painting to leatherwork to paint-by-number kits. In addition, there are categories in writing as well as the performing arts of dance, drama, and music.

The top three finalist entries in each category of the local competitions will advance to the national level of judging via digital submission. National competition results will be announced in December 2023. First place winners at the national level of the competition will be invited to attend the 43rd National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in the spring of 2024 in Denver, Colorado.

To participate, please contact your local Montana VA contact to learn about submission deadlines and how to submit your art: 

• Billings: For assistance with virtual entries in Billings, contact Penn Bangs at 406-442-6410 for visual arts and Tristan Grimes at (406) 373-3500 for performing arts. 

• Fort Harrison: Please contact Matt Lucas for show dates and times (406-447-7759, matt.lucas@va.gov).

• Miles City:  Please contact Anne Peterson for show dates and times (406-874-5810, anne.petersen2@va.gov).

• Missoula:  Please contact Andrea Hernandez for show dates and times (406-417-8909, andrea.hernandez8@va.gov). 

• All other Montana locations: Please contact VHAfhmRTSpecialEvents@va.gov.

Fort Harrison Local Show Dates: 

There will be an in-person Creative Arts Festival show at Fort Harrison VA Medical Center for Fort Harrison Veterans' artwork submissions. Details include:  

• Application deadline for art to be showcased at Fort Harrison:  August 22nd (Please contact Matt Lucas at (406-447-7759, matt.lucas@va.gov, with questions.)
• Judging: August 28th
• Dates of Creative Arts Festival:  August 29th at 10:00am until August 30th.
• Artwork pickup: August 30th 2:00-4:00pm and August 31st from 8:00am-noon. Kindly note that the VA cannot store your artwork and all artwork must be picked up by the artist no later than August 31 at 3:00 p.m. Please coordinate a time with Matt Lucas to pick up your Fort Harrison artwork (406-447-7759, matt.lucas@va.gov).

2023 Festival Rules

• Open to all enrolled Veterans within the Montana VA Health Care System. 
• All artwork must have been completed after 4/1/2022. 
• Veteran does not need to be present at Fort Harrison to participate.  Veterans can send pictures or recordings of their artwork to Matt Lucas.   
• Artists may have a maximum of 6 entries but no more than 3 entries in one Division (Visual Art, Creative Writing, Drama, Music, and Dance). 
• All artwork will be evaluated by local director.  Submissions with nudity, vulgar language, weapons (such as knives or guns) will not be accepted. 

Across the country each year, Veterans enrolled at VA health care facilities compete in a local creative arts competition. The competition includes categories in the visual arts division that range from oil painting to leatherwork to paint-by-number kits. In addition, there are categories in writing as well as the performing arts of dance, drama, and music.

Veterans can submit an entry in creative writing, dance, drama or music categories

The top three finalist entries in each category of the local competitions will advance to the national level of judging via digital submission. National competition results will be announced in December 2023. First place winners at the national level of the competition will be invited to attend the 43rd National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in the spring of 2024 in Denver, Colorado.